Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com AUGUST 2021 49 finish — to earn a third NCAA bid in the last four years, and both the Notre Dame lacrosse teams reached the Elite Eight of their NCAA Tournaments. In all, Notre Dame finished 14th in the 2020-21 Directors' Cup standings, a scoring competition among schools that measures the performance of all varsity athletic programs during an academic year. This marked its best finish in the competition since a 10th- place showing in 2014-15. Following are the top storylines from 2020-21 as the university pre- pares to begin its 2021-22 academic year on Aug. 23, hopefully clearer of the COVID cloud. DIFFICULT JOURNEY Impressively, Notre Dame football was able to play 10 of its 11 regular- season football games and two more postseason tilts, but getting to the finish line was far from routine. Marquee matchups against Wiscon- sin, Stanford and USC all were can- celed in the preseason, driving Notre Dame to become a one-year honorary football member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) before a viral out- break put 39 Irish players in quaran- tine or isolation and forced the foot- ball program to shut down for two weeks in September after two games. The Irish later had a game against Wake Forest postponed and eventually canceled because of COVID concerns. The season survived and Notre Dame won all 10 of its regular-season games to earn a place in the 2020 ACC Championship Game and the 2020 College Football Playoff. The Irish finished 10-2 — their fourth straight season with double- digit wins — and a No. 5 ranking in the final Associated Press poll. BEATING THE BEST In a magical moment that took way too long for Notre Dame to achieve, the Irish finally awakened some echoes and took another step to joining the elites of college football with a 47-40 double overtime upset at home of No. 1 Clemson Nov. 7. The epic victory — the biggest win during the career of Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly — marked the first Irish conquest of a top-ranked team since it beat No. 1 Florida State in 1993. The Irish trailed Clemson 33-26 in the fourth quarter before Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book re- sponded with a memorable eight- play, 91-yard touchdown drive that forced overtime. Both teams scored touchdowns in the first extra session. The Irish scored first in double overtime to take a 47-40 lead then subsequently held the Tigers out of the end zone to snap Clemson's 36-game regular- season winning streak. PLAYOFF BOUND Clemson exacted its revenge with a 34-10 drubbing of the Irish in the ACC Championship on Dec. 19. But with its 10-0 regular season, includ- ing the November win over the top- ranked Tigers, Notre Dame overcame the blowout loss and still earned one of the four spots in the College Foot- ball Playoff, along with the enviable opportunity to play top-seeded Ala- bama in the national semifinals. The Irish fell to the Crimson Tide 31-14, but held up better than Ohio State did against Alabama in the Buckeyes' 52-24 blowout loss in the national championship game. LIKE OLD TIMES After having their 2020 NCAA Championships wiped out last year by COVID, the Irish fencers returned in 2020-21 and claimed their 11th na- tional championship, tying the Notre Dame football program for the most titles in school history. This was the third title for the Irish in their last four NCAA Tournament appearances. Notre Dame dominated the event with four individual titles and four more runner-up finishes with nine total fencers becoming first-team All- Americans. Stefani Deschner (foil), Kara Linder (sabre), Marcello Olivares (foil) and Luke Linder (sabre) all won individ- ual national titles. RUNNING TO HISTORY With a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships March 15, the Notre Dame men's cross country team enjoyed one of its best seasons since winning the national title in 1957. Led by a 10th-place finish from ju- nior Danny Kilrea, the Irish put six runners in the top 40 to finish behind only perennial cross country power Northern Arizona. The runner-up finish for Notre Dame — which also won the ACC title this season — was its fourth in program history. This powerful Irish team will re- turn fully intact in 2021-22. MONUMENTAL JUMP After being picked in the preseason to finish 13th in the 14-team ACC, Notre Dame baseball instead finished 34-13 overall and 14-6 in league play, Senior foilist Stefani Deschner was one of four Irish fencers to win an individual national title while helping the program to the 2021 national crown — its 11th overall championship. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS